Premiership pay average hits £1m

The average Premier League footballer will earn around £1.1m a year next season, according to a new report.

The annual review of football finance by Deloitte also predicts the bumper new TV rights package will see the first £10m-a-year player within three seasons.

The reports shows wages last year shot up by 9% in the top flight in England.

Dan Jones, partner of Deloitte's sports business group, said a 3% wage fall in 2004-05 now appeared to be just a blip in the overall upward trend.

Jones said: 'We do expect the average annual earnings for a Premier League player next season will be in the region of £1.1m and that over the next three years we will see English football's first player to earn £10m per annum from a club, equivalent to £200,000 per week.'

The review also shows a huge gap in wages paid by Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool compared to the rest of the Premiership.

However, spending power among all Premier League clubs is now far superior to comparable sides in Italy and Spain.

Jones said the wage rise could be explained by clubs anticipating the extra income from the £2.7bn TV deal that comes on stream from next season. That would also explain why overall operating profits were down 15% - but are expected to double next season.

There is also concern at the widening gap between the Premier League and Coca-Cola Championship clubs. The gap between the average club revenue for each league was a record £56m in 2005-06 and is likely to increase to over £70m next season.

Championship clubs' total wage costs for 2005-06 increased by 5% to £228m - just twice the wage bill for Chelsea alone. The gap that is expanding the quickest however is between the Premier League and other European leagues.

Jones added: 'Ten years ago, there was pretty close competition between the Premier League and [Italy's] Serie A. Next season, the Premier League is going to be onebn euros ahead of Serie A.

'That is a good endorsement of the Premier League's decision to stick to selling their rights collectively, whereas in Italy and Spain they have gone down the road of selling their rights individually.'